Bethlehem

Observers: R. H, N. O., A. K., D. G.,
and a guest photographer, M.

On a day which started with a tragic shooting near El Khader, this
was a watch marked by extreme nervousness on the part of the
soldiers and the very over-bearing volunteer, Amos Tsafrir, who,
seemed to have taken charge of the check-point.

Qalandia south - for the past two months never seen a line waiting
to go north. This week some fifty Palestinians stood queuing. The
explanation for this novel (to us) procedure was, we were told by
the IDF, "instructions from the Security
Services!"

When M. tried to photograph the line , she was immediately attacked
with obscenities from the soldier in charge.As we walked north,
having presented our own IDs, one of the Palestinians said in
fluent Hebrew: "They don't want you to photograph how they
humiliate us. This is nothing more than sheer
harassment!"

Qalandia north - The lines seemed to be moving smoothly, with very
few people being turned back. When we tried to talk to the
soldiers, Amos rushed out from his stand and ordered :"Don't
talk to them! Your job is to watch that no one slips through!"
Then turning to us, he added "And if anyone wants to know why
they can't talk to you, you can say that those were the orders I,
Amos Tsafrir, have given them!"

On the road, traffic moved painfully slowly and a half-an-hour
seemed to be about the time taken to go through the check-point. An
ambulance en route to the Mekassed hospital was being held up even
after it had been checked.(It did eventually go
through).

Back at the pedestrian check-point-- a group of six men, ranging in
age from early twenties to late thirties, had been caught in the
quarry alongside the check-point. Their papers had been confiscated
and they had been waiting there since 12 o'clock mid-day. Two were
students of nursing at Al Quds university who spend two days a week
at Ramallah hospital in clinical training and who wanted to get
back to el Azzariya where they live during term-time. The soldiers
told us that the papers would be held until 9 o'clock. "To
teach them a lesson, once and for all!"

There followed a series of phone calls that began with an appeal to
the Centre for the Protection of the Rights of the Individual and
went up the line to Faris, the local commander. At about 6 o'clock,
and after endless appeals and Faris's own intervention, the IDs of
all but one were returned. But the two nursing students remained,
one was without his ID, though in possession of his student card,
the other stayed on in solidarityMore frantic phoning. A final
suggestion -- let the young man return to Ramallah to break his
fast and come back to the check-point next morning. Meanwhile the
army will do its best to clear up the matter. Can the young man
have a piece of paper to certify that his ID has gone missing in
IDF custody?. No, for that piece of paper would surely immediately
be misused for some nefarious purpose. "All he has to do is
come to the check-point and explain. And if he has trouble, he
should simply ask for the officer in charge!"

We were approached at the entrance to the area known as New Jersey
by a man who told us that he was a Jerusalemite living in a village
near the check-point . He works for the Nature Preservation
Authority and three years ago married a Russian immigrant, who did
not convert to Islam, nor does he want her to,"I married a
Jewess, and a Jewess she should remain". The IDF will no
longer let her travel home with him to the village; they say
"it is for her protection". The police, who he says have
come to see her at her mother's home in Gilo where she is now
living, told her she can solve her problems by becoming a Moslem.
"Can you help me? This is impossible!"